Soil redeposition from one garment to another garment in traditional laundry processes is a well-known phenomenon, whether it be aqueous based home laundry processes or solvent based dry cleaning processes. Models explaining this redeposition of soils from one garment to another theorize that this problem is associated with the cleaning process itself. In essence, after the water or solvent plus detergent system removes the soil from one garment, the soil can redeposit onto another garment before wash liquor is rinsed from the treated garments. To prevent this, the cleaning solution must contain ingredients capable of suspending or trapping the soil in the wash liquor, thereby preventing it from redepositing on garments. Given this model, extensive effort has gone into developing detergent systems capable of better soil suspension or trapping within the wash liquor. It is well-known to current practitioners of the art that as the suspension or trapping of soils in the wash liquor improves, the amount of soil redeposition decreases. The problem with this knowledge is that it also limits association of the problem of soil redeposition to cleaning processes involving water or solvents and detergent systems.
Conventionally soils and soil components, especially colorless soils and soil components have thought to have been effectively removed from dry or essentially dry fabrics via the drying process, oftentimes within an automatic clothes dryer. Formulators were of the mindset that the soils were volatilized and/or vaporized and removed from the dryer.
It has been surprisingly found that such soils are not effectively removed from dry or essentially dry fabrics because of the problem of redeposition of such soils onto the fabric after initially removing the soils from the fabrics, especially during the period when the fabric is cooling in temperature, for example when the fabrics are no longer being subjected to additional heat.
Accordingly, there is a need to develop compositions, articles, methods and/or systems to effectively remove soils and soil components from fabrics while inhibiting the redeposition of those soils and soil components onto the fabrics being treated.